The professionalism of teachers and school leadership are the strongest school-based factors influencing student outcomes. Recently, the Kazakhstan government has committed to a range of reforms to improve the quality of teaching and leadership. The innovations introduced represent a major shift in belief and practices. The changes and innovations are threatened unless the appropriate professional conditions created in schools allowing teachers and school administration to exercise professional judgment and take collective responsibility for learning. Based on the data collected in a remote rural school in Kazakhstan, this paper attempts to contribute to the understanding of the professional conditions in Kazakhstani schools and their potential to support or impede the implementation of forthcoming changes. The findings indicate that the teachers have little or no trust towards the historically established vertical hierarchy of the education system, where they believe that only ‘people of the circle’ (svoi ludi) work. At the same time, teachers themselves benefit from the ‘people of the circle’ to get through the attestation, to be sent to a professional development course, and to avoid an inspection. The paper concludes significance of examining the local conditions and practices for the successful implementation of the reform initiatives.

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